Where did yesterday go? Meetings, training, working on a doc late for a Japanese analyst (as "saef-san"), then I drove into a horrendous traffic jam. Took me about 90 minutes to drive home in cold rain. Ate fast, then off to see my therapist at 8:15 PM. Gassed up the car, home, right into bed. No time to decompress for getting back up for work.
Weigh-in: 139.3, back where I always thought I was. This is also an indicator of ramped-up stress at work, handling my usual workload while also devoting several hours to training a new hire.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach and artichoke hearts; blackberries & yogurt
Snack: Faux nectarine.
Lunch: Chayote, asparagus and green bean salad with cubes of smoked turkey and chickpeas on baby arugula
Snack: Two guavas
Dinner: Roasted vegetables and goat cheese on curried lentils over brown rice
Dessert: Apple Pie Quest Bar
Today's Exercise:
At the gym, 20 minutes on the Cybex arc trainer, then Workout 9A2 of Strong Curves.
Dagmar, most purchased foods have a weight on the label for the serving size. Like one cup greek yogurt = 227 grams. Much better to weigh your portion than to estimate one cup volumetrically. It avoids having to wash a measuring cup, too. For recipes, I weigh the ingredients before cooking so I know the total cals. Then, either I weigh the finished dish or I measure it in cups. For lasagne I'd weigh the entire thing. Say it weighs 1200 grams and has 2100 total cals. That would come out to 350 calories per 200 grams.
I have trained my DH to write down all the ingredients if he makes something, and I ask him not to eat any until I have weighed the finished product. (Or he can weigh it for me). If you tend to use the same recipes over, you can save your calorie calculation for the next time you make it. Also, My Fitness Pal has a good recipe calculator where you can just paste in the recipe and it does the calculation based on how many servings.
Don't know if that will be too much of a pain for you guys, but it sure takes the guesswork out of how many calories you are eating!
Feeling wiped out while driving home but told myself to make the turnoff for a long-delayed trip to Trader Joe's. I hate how this place runs out of stuff constantly and has empty space on its shelves like a yuppie gourmet Soviet commissary. (Last night it was chia seeds and spray can olive oil.)
Weigh-in: 139.5, trying not to make that .2 increase into something that makes me crazy or leads me to eat more.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach and artichoke hearts; blackberries and yogurt
Snack: Nectarine
Lunch: Baby arugula salad with sauteed tofu, roasted eggplant, peppers, and some other vegetables, I forget which
Snack: Yellow and red cherries, not as tasty as I'd hoped
Dinner: Shrimp with salad of quinoa, black beans, mango, cilantro, red pepper
Dessert: Apple pie Quest bar
Exercise for Today:
In the morning, at the gym, 30 minutes on the recumbent bike, hill program, resistance up to 10.
In the evening, back at the gym for Pilates mat class.
Saef-- you know .2 is literally the same.... you could have stood on a different part of the scale and been .2 less. It's funny how the scale dictates our mood though. I was 126.6 this morning and was about to be discouraged until I went to write it down and realized I was 127.8 yesterday (for some reason I thought I was less)-- then I was ecstatic. Silly, I know....
My Trader Joe's doesn't typically run out of things-- it's just out of the way and gets crowded so I don't go too often.
Trying to ignore my already rumbling tummy at 7:30. Ellie is still waking up approx 4:45 so my breakfasts are awful early. I have a mid-morning snack but try to wait till 9:30....
Ellie starts puppy class tonight. She's really good about some things but really needs to learn manners on other things. She also gets her cone off Saturday, so I hope the other puppies don't shun her tonight for having the cone of shame. Or the other owners for that matter... I'm super shy and your whole family is supposed to go to the classes so most people will be couples and some with kids. My dh is out of town picking up dd so I'll be all by my lonesome tonight.
Hoping the day goes smoothly and I can squeeze in the gym before puppy class at 7:00.
Last night, four things going at once at work, then afterward, another standstill traffic jam on I-95 when I left work. Just time to change for Pilates, and afterward, eat dinner and take myself to bed. The weekend can't come soon enough. I feel so frazzled, I'm not sure I'll be recovered by the time I've got to face Monday again.
Weigh-in: 139.2, but let's see what I do to myself over the weekend.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach and artichoke hearts; cantaloupe and yogurt
Snack: Incognito necatrine
Lunch: Huge salad of rather oily arugula and red peppers with some farro mixed through it, roasted vegetables, artichoke hearts, and tuna
Snack: Red and yellow cherries
Dinner: Shrimp with salad of quinoa, black beans, mango, cilantro, red pepper
Dessert: Quest cookies n' cream bar
Exercise for Today:
At physical therapy: 12 minutes on Cybex arc trainer, then 12 minutes more; 3x12 leg presses alternating with 3x 20 crunches and 20 leg raises; 3x12 hamstring curl and 3x12 quad lifts. This workout made me sweat gallons.
It's Saturday morning, just about 6 AM, and all I can think about is content for presentations that I mean to give to the people who are reporting to me. Not good.
Also I realized that when I got home from work last night, with all the weight of the week's tension in my body, all I did was incessantly chew sugarfree gum and surf the Internet. I need some a better ritual for unwinding.
Weigh-in: 140.5, not surprising, with the weight of yesterday's salad and all the fluid retention from that gum.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach and artichoke hearts; cantaloupe and yogurt
Lunch: Curried lentils, roasted vegetables, goat cheese, pecans over spring mix salad
Snack: Two guavas
Dinner: Miso-glazed salmon, steamed broccoli, sauteed spinach
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar
Exercise for Today:
At the gym, 20 minutes on Cybex arc trainer, then Workout 9A1 of Strong Curves, and after that, a Pilates mat class.
I was moved to reply by your post. I see so much perfectionism and fear on this particular forum--not just from you, saef, but others as well.
It is not the worst thing in the world to unwind from terrific stress by surfing the internet and chewing sugar free gum, saef. Even if the gum means some number of tenths of a pound increase, you know that's temporary. You know that.
It seems like everything you do makes you feel worse. It's no way to live. Can't you just be sometimes?
I'm 67 now, and things look different. They start to look different as one approaches 60, and they really start to look different around 62 or 63. One begins to notice that maybe life isn't infinite. Priorities begin to shift.
I'd say that it's better to shift priorities earlier rather than later. But in any case, now might be a good time.
I was moved to reply by your post. I see so much perfectionism and fear on this particular forum--not just from you, saef, but others as well.
It is not the worst thing in the world to unwind from terrific stress by surfing the internet and chewing sugar free gum, saef. Even if the gum means some number of tenths of a pound increase, you know that's temporary. You know that.
It seems like everything you do makes you feel worse. It's no way to live. Can't you just be sometimes?
I'm 67 now, and things look different. They start to look different as one approaches 60, and they really start to look different around 62 or 63. One begins to notice that maybe life isn't infinite. Priorities begin to shift.
I'd say that it's better to shift priorities earlier rather than later. But in any case, now might be a good time.
I'm finding that too Jayell. I'm 58 and I go out and lug big dogs around all day in all sorts of weather with all sorts of *ssholes to deal with. If I weigh 140.8 one morning and 139.6 the next my world doesn't crumble. I can miss one day or two days of yoga workouts and not feel guilty. It does make a difference to how well my body works but it's TEMPORARY.
Better to be grateful for how nice the morning is and how loudly the birds are singing than to be bummed out the whole day by a digital readout on a thing in my bathroom.
Better to enjoy watching my pets living their lives than to weigh, measure or count every single thing that goes into my body.
This is just me, in case any of you are getting your outrage on. I'm not suggesting any of you would want to aim for the things that make me happy. But there should be things that make people feel good in their lives. I am actively pursuing those things. I hope all of you are too.
Jay, that post may not have given enough information for you to interpret. It's really about me trying to find a way to decompress. I don't want to use the Internet for that. I want to take a walk or lie in the sun or something.
On the Sunday after watching American Pharoah's big win, I am thinking that even though work is stressful, life is still going to provide those little moments of joy and elation.
I am worrying, though, as my leg is really hurting this morning, and I am supposed to make my first experimental trip downtown today. There is a $70 theater ticket involved here, nonrefundable.
Weigh-in: 137.2, no excuses here at all.
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach and artichoke hearts; cantaloupe and yogurt with cacao nibs
Snack: A Gala apple, quite good for being from Washington, rather than NY
Lunch: Baby kale salad with roasted vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes, pecans, goat cheese, half an avocado and several tablespoons of roasted red pepper hummus
Dinner: Tomatillo salsa pork chop with quinoa and steamed green beans
Dessert: Cookies n' cream Quest bar
Exercise for Today:
20 minutes recumbent bike, hill program, resistance up to 10, then Workout 9B of Strong Curves Beginners Program
It was a great race and a great win! I'm so glad we watched it!
Horses make me cry. I think it's genetic; my father used to cry about horses, too. He couldn't even say "Secretariat" without choking up.
saef, I guess my point could be summarized like this: Are some ways of decompressing better than others? Yes. Does constant self-critical judgment help? No.
I am not an example to be followed because I regained. But I do sometimes have insights that might be useful. (Or not.)
I cried, too, on Saturday. I remember Secretariat well. I saw him win the Belmont Stakes. I was young enough during 1973 to still be consuming inordinate numbers of horse stories every week from the school library, and Secretariat's was just as heroic as the animals in those books.
This morning I'm terribly sad at returning to work, and trying not to feel overwhelmed at 7 AM by training the new hire, and working on a document that needs to publish as fast as possible, and planning a staff meeting for Thursday, and setting up one-on-ones with my 10 direct reports. Also I have an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon at 11 AM for my monthly x-rays.
Weigh in: 141.2
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, artichoke hearts & sun-dried tomatoes; cantaloupe and yogurt
Snack: Gala apple
Lunch: Baby arugula salad with quinoa, black beans, mango & red pepper, half an avocado, pecans, goat cheese and some red pepper hummus
Snack: A small and tasteless peach
Dinner: Ginger cilantro marinated flank steak, sweet potato, roasted brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar
Dessert: Double chocolate chunk Quest bar
Exercise for Today:
At physical therapy: 12 minutes on Cybex arc trainer; 4x12 squats, last three sets as goblet squats with a 12-lb weight, alternating with 4x24 crunches; 3x12 hamstring curl and 3x12 quad lifts; 3x12 abductor/adductor machine, then 12 minutes walking at 2.5 mph. This was an easier workout, lower weights on the machines.
Tuesday, bracing myself for the next two days, which include 13 meetings between them, including one which I lead and need to show a PowerPoint during it. Didn't spend much time at all with the new trainee, but after lunch, I did go outside to run some errands at the bank, doctor's office and store (I was nearly out of coffee filters!) and it was a pleasure to walk in the sun, even though it was humid.
Weigh-in: 140.9
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, artichoke hearts & sun-dried tomatoes; raspberries and yogurt
Snack: Gala apple
Lunch: Baby arugula salad with roasted vegetables, marinated artichokes, walnuts, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, half an avocado, and several forkfuls of plain hummus
Snack: Bare Fruit Granny Smith Apple Chips, 180 calorie package
Dinner: Ginger cilantro marinated flank steak, kale greens cooked like collards, sweet potato
Dessert: Double chocolate chunk Quest bar
Today's Exercise:
At the gym, 20 minutes on Cybex arc trainer, hill program, resistance up to 10, then Workout 10C of the Strong Curves Beginners Program. At this rate, I will finish this 12-week program sometime next week.
I'm on my second day of writing down the stuff I eat and the calorie counts for most of it. Made two changes that will save a lot of time and stress. I'm not weighing things every time I eat them - I can eyeball pretty accurately and will recheck that once a week or so - and I'm eating many things over and over so can just write in a calorie #, rather than breaking down all the components.
And yes, I'm using a notebook and pen and looking things up in my calorie counter book. I have no interest in turning on yet another electronic device every time I want to do something. Probably more convenient but it's more "real" for me to do this manually, just as it's more "real" to spend money by handing over cash.
I'm also weighing every day, for this month. Not taking the numbers too seriously as I've lost 2 lbs. already. I guess all the thinking involved with the calorie logging yesterday gave me a 7000 cal deficit?
Down another .4 lbs. to below 139. I haven't seen a 138 on the scale this year, until this morning. Even though I'm not taking the # too seriously it DID give me a little "charge" to see the 138.
And yes, I will be doing this - - when I see a 134, which I haven't seen in so long I don't remember the last time. By then I will also have lost all the "muffin top" spillage out of my favorite jeans.
Wednesday, with me waking up at 3:30 AM filled with anxiety over getting through the next two days. I have to calm down. I'm not going to burn up or explode. I'm just going to talk with people a lot. That's all.
Weigh-in: 142.5
Meals for Today:
Breakfast: Coconut mango muffin; egg bake with spinach, artichoke hearts & sun-dried tomatoes; raspberries and yogurt
Snack: Gala apple
Lunch: Baby arugula salad with sweet potatoes, green beans, roasted eggplant, tuna, some cooked grains & sunflower seeds
Snack: Yellow and red cherries
Dinner: Broccoli rabe and ginger cilantro marinated flank steak
Dessert: S'mores Quest bar
Today's Exercise:
At the gym, 20 minutes on recumbent bike, hill program, resistance up to 10, then Workout 10A2 of the Strong Curves Beginners Program. Once again, I'm deadlifting and squatting, though the weight is still light, at 90 lbs for 3x20 & 70 lbs for 3x20 respectively. Feels good to get to the gym at 5 AM & get this done before I head into the office.
:
- when I see a 134, which I haven't seen in so long I don't remember the last time. By then I will also have lost all the "muffin top" spillage out of my favorite jeans. 
